The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

Still guarding the border, no matter how they feel about those on the other side.

Still guarding the border, no matter what's happening in Cairo...

[Ynet] The Paleostinian Maan News Agency reported that the authorities in Egypt have thwarted an attempted to smuggle 8,000 liters of diesel fuel into Gazoo through a network of tunnels.

According to the report, the Egyptian police have tossed in the calabooseDon't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! a truck driver who was transporting four gas containers to the Sinai city of El Arish. He admitted during questioning that the gas was meant to reach Rafah.

Five days into his administration, Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto has opted not to shake up general staff appointments at his defense ministry, replacing only two top staff positions, according to Mexican news accounts and official government information.

It was reported Wednesday without official confirmation that the head of the army and the army operations chief would be the first two changes in the Mexican Secretaria de Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) general staff. Press reports said that the two appointments may the the only two of SEDENA's general staff appointments.

General Virgilio Mendez Bazan was appointed as head of the Mexican Army, coming from X Military Region in Yucatan state in southern Mexico. He replaces General Carlos Demetrio Gaytan Ochoa. General Martin Cordero Luqueño has been appointed to replace General Mendez Bazan as commander of the X Military Region.

General Mendez Bazan is a 1967 graduate of Mexico's Heroico Colegio Militar military academy and an infantry commander, according to data supplied by SEDENA on its website. Between 2002 and 2005 he held command in the 22nd Military Zone in Mexico state. He was promoted to general de division in 2009. Like his commander, General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, he is reportedly a friend of Pena Nieto.

The army's new operations chief is General Roble Arturo Granados Gallardo, a 1972 graduate of Heroico Colegio Militar military academy and an infantry commander who previously commanded the Mexican 13th Military Zone in Nayarit in western Mexico, a command he held in 2004, according to data supplied by SEDENA. According to an article which appeared on the website of El Universal news daily, he also held other military zone commands before his elevation to army operations chief.

General Granados Gallardo replaces General Luis Arturo Oliver Cen, a highly experienced former field commander and cavalryman, who was once an aspirant to become head of the army.

Last Tuesday Pena Nieto attended Artillery Day in Mexico City, where in a speech he reiterated his goal of eventually returning the Mexican Army to the barracks as a means of ending drug war violence which has been a feature of Mexico's struggle against drug cartels and organized crime since 2007.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com

Unexpectedly!
Constructing the new Department of Homeland Security headquarters will cost $600 million more than originally expected and take six years longer to complete, according to the department's latest estimates.

The initial plan called for $3.45 billion to consolidate DHS operations on the site of the former St. Elizabeths Hospital campus in southeast Washington by the end of fiscal 2016.Ironically - perhaps - that's the site of the old looney bin.
But delays caused by congressional budget cuts have driven the cost of the project up to $4.06 billion and will drag completion out to fiscal 2022, according to the estimates. The department originally planned to relocate more than 14,000 workers from more than 180 offices and reduce its leased offices in the Washington area to fewer than 12 by fiscal 2016.

[Dawn] India alleged on Tuesday there were more than 40 training camps in Pakistain for Islamic fascistiwho made regular attempts to cross the heavily fortified border between the two countries.

India had identified 25 camps in Azad Kashmire and 17 in Pakistain containing around 2,500 hard boys, junior home affairs minister Mullappally Ramachandran claimed in a statement in parliament.

"The terrorist infrastructure in Pakistain or Pakistain-Indian Kashmiree remains intact and infiltration attempts from across the border still continue to pose a challenge to the security forces," Ramachandran alleged.

"Pakistain-based hard boys, with the support of Pakistain's army, have made 249 attempts to sneak into Indian territory so far this year, two more than last year but far below the 489 in 2010," he said.

[Dawn] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... government is in a fix over handling of young jacket wallahs, who escape punishment due to their juvenile status, according to Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

"If a young suicide bomber is placed in durance vileDon't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! by law enforcement agencies, the law treats him leniently as he is underage. But he kills innocent people if not arrested," he said.

The minister was briefing journalists after the 53rd meeting of the provincial cabinet, held on Tuesday to discuss law and order situation in the province. Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti chaired the meeting.

Mr Hussain said that most of the suicide bombers were children as they were below 18. "The provincial government is in trouble as they (young bombers) are not convicted in most of the cases," he said.

The minister said that a suicide bomber was arrested by police on November 20 and boom jacket was removed from his body in front of cameras of different private television channels. However,you can observe a lot just by watching... he couldn't be punished as he was only 13-14 years of age, he
added.

"It is also a weakness of the government, which has failed to enact proper laws for handling such cases," the minister said. He requested the judiciary not to treat beturbanned goons like other people when they were arrested with proofs.

According to him, the home secretary told the cabinet meeting that conviction rate of Orcs and similar vermin was only four per cent.

[Dawn] Pakistain's Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the federal and provincial governments have failed in providing security to the people of restive Balochistan...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it..., the country's biggest province.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said that the Balochistan government had lost its constitutional authority, and that the police alone could not be held responsible for the province's unrest.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising the chief justice, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, issued an interim order on a petition of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association on the breakdown of law and order and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... violations in the province.

The Paleostinian terror group Ansar Allah announced a total "military, security and political" split from its backer Hezbollah, Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... reported on Wednesday.

Ansar Allah, which is led by former Fatah official Jamal Suleiman, issued a statement on Tuesday that said that the group had worked for the "jihadist resistance" for many years and would "continue on the path of jihad and resistance until the liberation of all occupied Paleostine."

The statement, which was distributed in the Ein el-Hellhole Paleostinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Sidon, said Ansar Allah would continue to exist as an armed "independent jihadist movement" whose aim was the "liberation of the land and holy places desecrated by the Jewish occupiers," according to Al-Mustaqbal, the newspaper of Leb's Future Movement, which is opposed to Hezbollah.

Ansar Allah, which the US has described as a "clandestine subgroup of Hezbollah" was first formed in 1982 during the First Leb War, and reportedly has hundreds of armed operatives in Paleostinian refugee camps in Leb.

Through Hezbollah, Ansar Allah has been an important proxy for Iran, through which Tehran has perpetrated its shadow war against Israeli and Jewish targets.

Ansar Allah was unknown until July 1994, when it issued a statement expressing support for the deadly bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hezbollah and Iran are widely suspected to have been behind that attack, which killed 85 people.

Ansar Allah and Hezbollah are also suspected of involvement in another terror attack, the bombing of a commuter aircraft, Alas Chiricanas Flight 00901, in Panama on the night of July 19, 1994 -- a day after the AMIA bombing. A semtex plastic explosive charge, carried by a man calling himself Lya Jamal, went off killing 21 passengers, 12 of them Jewish.

Ansar Allah issued another statement after the Panama bombing, expressing support for the act.

Israel has maintained that the two bombings had their origins in Iran, which hired operatives from Hezbollah to carry them out.

Ansar Allah has since admitted its connection with Hezbollah.

In 2007, the group's military leader, Maher Oweid, admitted that all of Ansar Allah's funding, as well as security and political cover, came from Hezbollah.

Ansar Allah operatives were also trained by Hezbollah when the group had open training camps in Leb, and the group had previously taken a leading role in Hezbollah operations, Oweid said.

While openly admitting backing from the Hezbollah, Oweid denied that Ansar Allah has taken any money directly from Tehran. However,those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the group is known for holding military demonstrations on Al- Quds Day, the anti-Israeli "holiday" created by Ayatollah Khomeini.

According to Al-Mustaqbal, Ansar Allah's announcement of its defection from Hezbollah has caused an uproar in Paleostinian refugee camps, mostly because the statement revealed again the group's substantial political, security and logistical relationship with Hezbollah and its backer, Iran.

Ansar Allah's decision to split from Hezbollah comes as disagreements over Syria continue to disrupt and shift Tehran's influence among Paleostinian terror groups

The daily cited unnamed Paleostinian sources as saying that the decision to split from Hezbollah came after disputes over Hezbollah's declining financial support for the group. However,those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the sources also hinted that Ansar Allah's decision may be connected with a fundamental disagreement over Hezbollah's support for Bashir al-Assad's regime in Syria, Iran's closest regional ally.

Paleostinian sources told Al-Mustaqbal that Ansar Allah had signaled that it may support Syrian rebel forces, whereas Hezbollah has worked closely with its sponsor, Iran, to play a critical role in helping Assad try to quash the rebels.

According to Al-Mustqbal, Hezbollah previously wired money every month to Ansar Allah's leader Suleiman, but the transfers stopped in December. When Ansar Allah operatives made inquiries, Hezbollah told them that it wanted to discuss making funding subject to new conditions.

Hezbollah did not specify what those conditions were, however.

At the same time as it distanced itself from Ansar Allah, Hezbollah has also started to cultivate ties with other bad turban Paleostinian groups in Ein el-Hellhole, the sources told Al-Mustaqbal. The sources named two al-Qaeda affiliates: Asbat al- Ansar (League of the Partisans), a Salafist bad turban group which the US and UN have designated a terrorist group; and al- Haraka al-Islamiya al-Mujahid (The Islamic Struggle Movement), a Sunni group led by Sheikh Jamal Khattab.

Like Ansar Allah, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has also sided with Syria's rebels, who are Sunnis like themselves. At the same time, Hamas has also moved closer to Qatar. Tehran has tried to play down the resulting dispute, with the Persian language IRIB news agency quoting Iran's ambassador to Leb on Monday as saying Hamas had "not distanced itself from Syria."

[An Nahar] The Mufti of Tripoli...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... and the North Sheikh Malek al-Shaar announced on Wednesday that he will not be returning to Leb from a trip to Europe after he has allegedly received death threats.

Radio Voice of Leb (93.3) said that the northern Mufti has been advised to stay abroad, in fear of an liquidation attempt against him.

"I am not coming back until issues are cleared up in Leb," al-Shaar told VDL.

VDL said al-Shaar was attending a conference in Vienna and then left for Gay Paree where he will reside until his return.

This news comes after festivities erupted in his city, Tripoli, between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen leading to the death of seven people.

The festivities broke out over the weekend in wake of the announcement of the death of a number of Lebanese Islamist fighters, who mainly hail from the North, in the border region of Tall Kalakh in Syria on Friday.

Media outlets had conflicting information about the number of people who died and those who survived the attack.

While the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a group of 30 rebels "were caught in an ambush by government troops in the area of Tall Sarin near the town of Tall Kalakh", Voice of Leb radio (100.5) said the ambush left 20 Lebanese men dead, adding that they hail from Akkar's Fnaideq and Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh and al-Mankoubin neighborhoods.

[An Nahar] The United States said Wednesday it was aware of informal offers of asylum to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadLord of the Baath... by countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.

State Department front man Mark Toner gave no details, referring news hounds to others governments after being asked about speculation that the Syrian president was weighing asylum offers from Latin America.

"We do understand that some countries, both in the region and elsewhere, have offered to host Assad and his family should he choose to leave Syria," Toner said.

"We, at this point, don't have any formal understanding or knowledge of concrete offers. We are aware that some offers have been made, as I said, informally, but we don't have any concrete offers.

The asylum speculation stems from a recent trip to Cuba by Syria's deputy foreign minister, Fayssal Mekdad, who delivered a message from Assad to Cuban President Compañero Raul Castro...Fidel's little brother..., according to the official Cuban Prensa Latina news agency.

The Syrian official also was reported to have traveled to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Ecuador, whose leftist governments have close relations with Havana.

Tunisia's president offered Assad asylum as recently as March, and U.S. officials told politicians a year ago that Arab leaders were privately telling Washington that had offered Assad asylum if he would step down.

But the latest rumors come amid intensifying fighting in the suburbs of Damascus...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world..., and U.S. warnings to Syria not to use chemical weapons against its own people.

[An Nahar] Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in remarks published Wednesday that Ankara knows the "exact location" of hundreds of ground missiles belonging to the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadDespoiler of Deraa...
"Assad has about 700 missiles... Now we know the exact location of all of them, how they are stored and who holds them," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Sabah newspaper.

The comments emerged the day after NATO...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ministers approved Turkey's request for deployment of Patriot missiles along its volatile border with Syria, a move that has angered Damascus...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... and its allies.

Davutoglu said the international community feared possible attacks from Damascus against countries such as Turkey which were pushing for the toppling of the regime, if it felt the end was near.

"We say to anyone who would want to attack Turkey -- don't even think about it," NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in announcing the alliance's decision on the Patriots, a U.S.-made ground to air system.

The number of missile batteries and their precise location have yet to be decided and will be determined after a site survey in Turkey and consultations within NATO.

Syria reportedly has several types of ballistic missiles, including Russian-made Scuds.

[Dawn] UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... has hinted that he would not favor an asylum deal for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadLeveler of Latakia... as a way to end the country's civil war.

Ban was asked Wednesday about the potential for such a deal. He refrained to comment directly on the matter but told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that the United Nations...an idea whose time has gone... doesn't allow anyone "impunity."

Ban says that "whoever commits (a) gross violation of human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... must be held accountable and should be brought to justice. This is a fundamental principle." Ban spoke on the sidelines of UN climate talks in Qatar.

Assad vowed in an interview with Russia Today last month that he would never be forced into exile and that he would "live and die in Syria."

[An Nahar] U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Wednesday called on all warring parties in Syria to stop fighting immediately, saying there is no military solution to the conflict.

"The military option cannot be a solution. The violence must stop immediately," Ban told news hounds in Kuwait City after talks with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.

"This is totally an unacceptable situation. We cannot let the situation continue this way," Ban said.

Ban also said that all problems should be resolved "through a political process."

[An Nahar] U.N. Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... on Wednesday called on all warring parties in Syria to stop fighting immediately, saying there is no military solution to the conflict.

"The military option cannot be a solution. The violence must stop immediately," Ban told news hounds in Kuwait City after talks with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.

"This is totally an unacceptable situation. We cannot let the situation continue this way," Ban said.

Ban also said that all problems should be resolved "through a political process."

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.